WP Booking System vs Beds24
WordPress is a popular choice for many types of businesses that have resources that they let or hire, including Vacation Rentals, Hotels/Motels, Boat Rental, etc.
This means there is a great need for instant booking plug-ins, or booking platforms, that can integrate with WordPress seamlessly, providing a reliable instant reservation system.
Here we compare 2 very different products. WP Booking plug-in versus Beds24 platform, which is a hosted solution (or SAAS Software As A Service) that can be integrated with WordPress.
What is a WP Booking System?
This is a plug-in with a free or paid version. The free version is a pretty simple affair that allows you to display a single calendar for a single resource, with fairly flexible but simple rate set up.
Most people will need, at the very least, to upgrade to a “Personal” version, which is pretty well featured including multiple calendars (for multiple rooms/units), search function, email reminders, date restrictions, reports, and inventory management.
In order to get anything near to a booking platform, you need the Paid Business version. This allows you to add:
- iCal Calendar Sync
- Stripe Payment
- PayPal Payment
- Square Payment
- WooCommerce Checkout
- Mollie Payment
- Redsys Payment (very useful in Spain)
- Authorize.Net Payment
- GoPay Payment
- PriceLabs.co
- Discounts & Coupons
- SMS Notifications
- Invoicing
- Contracts
- Multiple Currencies
What are the strengths of WP-Booking?
- Ease of deployment – WP-Booking is very easy to deploy and programme, specially if you understand how booking systems work in general. Even if you are not familiar with this kind of processes, it is easy to figure out, specially with the excellent documentation provided.
- Support – They are brilliant, quick in responding, and always helpful, which is more than can be said for many paid plug-ins.
- WordPress integration – As you would expect with any plug-in, integrating it with your WordPress is already done for you. It is just a matter of entering the shortcode in the page, or widget area, that you wish to use. If you are using Elementor or Visual Composer, then it is even easier, as they both recognise WP-Booking as a widget.
- Price – WP-Booking is excellent value, as it does most of the things an average small hotel, or a property rental owner requires.
- iCal Sync – This is the most basic connectivity when using multiple Portals/Channels, it allows you to synch with any portal that supports iCal. Portals that support iCal include AirBnB, Booking.com, VRBO, Agoda, TripAdvisor, etc. Do bear in mind iCal only allows you to sync your availability, so you have to manage your pricing, communications, and content using each portals own system.
What are the weaknesses of WP-Booking?
This is not so much as “weakness” but missing features, which realistically you can only expect from booking Platforms rather than a plug-in.
The missing features are only to be expected, as this is not a booking platform. Any multiple unit property manager, or larger hotel, needs to seriously consider if they can live without functionality that a booking platform offers. These include Multiple Rates, Dynamic Rates, Conditional Rates, Day Rates, Channel Content Synchronization, House Keeping List, Multilingual Set Up, 3rd Party Software/App connectivity, etc.
This is, however, a really big ask from a plug-in which costs less than $5 a month!
What is Beds24?
Beds24 is a booking platform, which is a completely different proposition to a plug-in. Beds24 is by far the best value-for-money booking platform on the market, as most booking platforms are unaffordable for smaller or mid-size businesses.
Booking platforms are generally designed for running your entire operation with very flexible rate plans, rate management, multilingual front-end and back-end, synchronisation with major portals including full content synchronisation, 3rd party app connections (accounting, dynamic rate management, etc).
Beds24 is a fully-featured booking platform, whilst WP-Booking is a WordPress plug-in. It is fair to say that many smaller operations do need some of the features booking platforms offer, but most cannot afford it. This is not the case with Beds24 platform, as it priced so that smaller hotels, property managers, etc. can also afford these functionalities.
What are the strengths of Beds24?
Other than its affordability, we specifically like the the following:
- Conditional Rates – You can set up as many rates as you want, including day rates, based on conditions such as length of stay, early booking, late booking, number of guests, etc. The choice is bewildering.
- Channel Manager – On top of iCal, Beds24 can synchronise your content and prices with channels that offer content management such as AirBnB, Booking.com, VRBO, etc. This can save you a huge amount of time, as you can make changes in the content (including photos), prices, etc., via Beds24 and the system will update the portals for you. Just consider how much time this will save if you have half a dozen properties, and want to connect to the 3 main channels (AirBnB, VRBO, Booking.com)
- Multilingual – Beds24 offers multilingual front and back-end, which means not only can you serve your clients in their own language, but your staff can manage the system in their native tongue.
- AutoAction – This is a very smart feature, which allows you to schedule automatic messages including confirmation, payment reminders, review request, etc., all in the guests native language and based on the source of booking, such as direct, channels (including defining which portal), as well as adding guests to your 3rd party mailing lists (e.g. MailChimp).
- Virtual Units & Dependencies – This takes conditional variables to a new height. You can create virtual units that are dependent on other units availability. For example if you have 2 rooms that can be linked to make a suite or family room, you can create a virtual unit called “Suite”, which is only available when both rooms are available. If the suite is booked, then both rooms are blocked. The suite can have all aspects of a real room (rates, conditions, synch with portals, etc.), but all 3 units are dependent on each other’s availability.
- API with 3rd Party – This enables Beds24 to connect to myriads of applications and software, including bespoke software of your own. These include accounting software, dynamic pricing software, electronic entry systems, etc.
What are the weaknesses of Beds24?
The way Beds24 keeps its prices down is to provide support via an extensive online manual and videos. Additional support is provided via System Integrators like us, which means it is not free.
So you have to be technically savvy to work with Beds24, or be willing to learn from manuals and videos. Alternatively, you can pay for System Integrators to configure or connect Beds24 to 3rd party products or Portals.
Summary
Both these products provide excellent solutions for hospitality websites that use WordPress.
However, they are entirely different products. If you want something low cost but with a fair level of functionality, then WP Booking is a great solution.
If you need sophisticated rates, rate management, channel content management, or multilingual solution, then you need to consider Bed24.
Either way, contact us as we can set up and support you for either products.